{"id":395,"date":"2012-12-11T22:50:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T22:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2012\/12\/11\/self-recycling-ftw\/"},"modified":"2018-07-18T21:29:22","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T21:29:22","slug":"self-recycling-ftw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/library\/2012\/12\/11\/self-recycling-ftw\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-recycling FTW!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi! I’m Pete Ramsey<\/a>, one of the Reference and Instruction librarians<\/a> at Langsdale Library<\/a>, and I also teach the Information Literacy<\/i> (IDIS 110) course in first-year student learning communities. <\/span><\/p>\n

Self-Recycling <\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

My IDIS 110 course includes a rather detailed discussion of copyright and plagiarism. One interesting concept often missed in academic treatment of these topics is something called “self-recycling.” The usual search engines give little in the way of a useful definition, so I will explain it briefly here and point out some good and bad self-recycling practices.<\/span>

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Definition and Example<\/span><\/h3>\n

At its most basic, self-recycling is taking a project you created for one class and handing it in for another class. To be very clear, turning in the exact same <\/i>project in multiple classes, without explicit permission from all professors involved, is considered academic dishonesty<\/a> (also known as “cheating”). However, it is a quite different–and very good–idea to go back to a good topic in later classes, updating and customizing your work based on the requirements and content of each course. <\/span>

<\/span>Here’s an example of self-recycling done right. Way back in the fifth grade, I did a history project about the Spanish Armada and Philip II’s attempted invasion of England<\/a>. I collected a fair pile of resources, made note cards and an outline, and wrote a decent paper about the series of events. A few years later, I took that foundation, added stronger sources, and wrote a much-improved version for a high school European history class. I did a third research paper about the Spanish Armada for a college Iberian Peninsular <\/a>history course, this time writing in Spanish and focusing on the long-term impact on the economies of Spain and Portugal. What’s important for academic integrity is that I updated my research and changed the major focus each time I returned to the topic.<\/span>
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Here are some benefits to (proper) self-recycling<\/span><\/h3>\n